EuroDisney's cultural mismanagement and recovery in France

EuroDisney

With great expectations of 11 million visitors the first year and exceptional profits anticipated from concessions, entertainment, hotels and sports, the Walt Disney Company imperviously launched EuroDisney in April, 1992. Despite the fact there had been two previous attempts at mega-parks in France, each priced at $150M or more and launched in the years 1987 and 1991 that failed, Disney charged on against cultural and economic warning sights. Analyzing this case from the context of the four functions of management including planning, organizing, leading and controlling, the factors that led to the initial difficult launch period and eventual acceptance by the French is explained.

Planning at EuroDisney Takes on an Unfortunate Ethnocentric Perspective

Instead of realizing that the primary factors behind the success of other parks located in foreign nations was in large part due to managers from those nations running them, Disney executives ignore this point and plunge into managing the EuroDisney project primarily with Americans. The planning aspect of any project this large needs to take into account cultural factors and be extremely sensitive to them. The Disney executives however were blinded by ethnocentrism -- or thinking that just because their best practices in the United State worked for the massive park in Orlando and Anaheim, it would work outside of Paris. A better approach would have been to use the Hofstede Model of Cultural Dimensions to fully appreciate just how different the U.S. And French cultures are (Hofstede, McCrae, 2004). Figure 1 is a comparison of the cultures based on the interactive Hofstede Model on his website. To see the model, please follow the hyperlink under the image. Immediately it is clear the French have a much higher sensitivity to Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI). This very high figure for France shows that this is a nation that takes its culture and history very seriously, does not necessarily like change for its own sake or for excitement, and resists any threats to its status quo. The many changes that the American-based management team put in during the planning phase of EuroDisney, from prohibiting alcohol initially to showing only American rides and characters, was easily seen by even the most open-minded French person as an insult to their culture.

Figure 1: Analysis of the American and French Cultures using the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Model

Source: http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_dimensions.php?culture1=95&culture2=33#compare

Leading and Controlling: Lessons From the Land of the Rugged Individualists

The American cultural score for Individualism (IDV) is 91, the highest of any country measured by Hofstede in his cultural dimensions model (Hofstede, McCrae, 2004). This says Americans are more likely to consider how job decisions affect themselves and immediate families and immediately take action to ensure those they are responsible for are taken care of. It also means that American employees are accustomed to defining their own agendas as well, yet will work with an employer who has strict rules providing they earn the chance to be individualistic. For the French worker, the need for caring for others in addition to ones' immediate family is critical. There is a much more egalitarian or shared context for French workers as a result.

The implications on leading and controlling in France are clear from this analysis. First, French workers need to have a level of individuality defined that is consistent with their cultural values, and second, have a series of shared goals to accomplish together. The management aspect of control is much more attuned to the need for shared task ownership and less about individual accomplishment. The collective pride of accomplishment in France is more powerful than the one, triumphant individual -- the rugged individualist -- that the American culture values.

In understanding these differences, the Walt Disney executives could have saved themselves tens of millions of dollars and had a successful park. It would have been wise to allow the elite to also help design the park as a monument to the excellent contributions France has made to the arts and sciences as well.

Reference

Geert Hofstede, & Robert R. McCrae. (2004). Personality and Culture Revisited: Linking Traits and Dimensions of Culture. Cross - Cultural Research, 38(1), 52-88.